The call you will make to one of your happy clients in the past will be to get a testimonial from them so you can list it on your website. However, this is just an icebreaker for you to ask them for five referrals.

Each of your clients has friends and colleagues in your industry who can use the work you provide.

Since you did an outstanding job for them in the past, they won’t be hard pressed to reach out to these business opportunities on your behalf.

Freelance Communities

While you may feel alone in your work at times, there are countless freelancers who are doing the exact same thing you are.

It is always a great idea to attach yourself to like-minded people who are going the same direction as you are.

In that sense, there are groups and communities you can join which will share jobs and opportunities for your business, which clients are picky and which one’s are great to work with.

I have set up a freelance content writers group on Facebook and it has steadily grown to 1200+ people and counting.

These groups will help you grow as a freelancer as well.

Honing your craft is something you should be doing daily and the experience of those in front of you is a great way to do so. Learn from others mistakes and apply them to your own business.

Narrow Your Expertise

You may think it’s a great idea to be a jack of all trades type of freelancer. However, this is further from the truth when it comes to getting clients.

Pick out a niche in which you excel in and begin narrowing this niche down tighter and tighter.

After you have chosen your niche, start creating content and/or projects which pinpoint this expertise that can help your potential clients succeed in whatever it is they’re doing.

After that, share this expertise on social media, get people in your community to help you share in order to get the most out of your content or project.

Guest Post

My own business profits from this type of strategy. Guest posting on high profile sites like Entrepreneur, Inc, and Forbes (working on that one now), can bring more visibility to your expertise and people will reach out to you themselves.

Make sure you are writing in the correct vertical or category on the high profile site as your expertise so you won’t be getting stray clients from social marketing especially if you’re an SEO expert.

Stay Consistent

Once you have logged your expertise, found a nice group to settle in and continually contacting clients for referrals, the only thing left for you to do is to stay consistent with your work.

People notice consistency and it will reward you in the long run.

Continue to create your content for free, give advice, but when it comes to clients coming to you for help, capitalize on this opportunity and ask for the sale.

If you have been consistent with your work, your expertise will speak for itself and you will be able to charge what you’re worth.

In Conclusion

Being a freelancer is a great job to have. However, there’s a lot of online workers who give it up too quickly because they don’t see results right away.

It takes a little while for this to happen but while you wait, you can always join freelance platforms like UpWork to continue to get paid until you can keep clients coming to you.

What do you think? Have you any suggestions for new freelancers who are just getting started?

I am a digital strategist and content writing consultant that focuses your marketing on a psychology strategy. I am a Star Wars fanatic, musician, and I love to blog! My goal is to help people see the simple side of their marketing by doing what already comes natural to them. Be themselves. Feel free to let me help your business with a content marketing strategy which places your content on high profile sites around the web! I am also the co-founder of E and O Apparel modest church dresses for women and other apparel needs as well with my wife.